Goalkeeper Sebastian Lembo is one of 20 freshmen on the Rivier Univiersity men's soccer team that opens up this sweekend. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

NASHUA – Call it a rebirth. Or, basically a reboot.

Or maybe a few other things.

“We kind of hashtagged it ‘The Rebuild,'” Rivier University men’s soccer coach Hayden Barbosa said. “That theme kind of drove our attention and energy throughout the process.”

The “process” was the move which has gone through the entire athletic department to increase the number of student-athletes on campus via recruiting, part of the same theme that led to the creation of the school’s first ever men’s and women’s hockey programs. Barbosa’s new-look, but young, Raiders are set to see the fruits of their labor in the season opener next Saturday vs. Emmanuel in Boston. This weekend’s scheduled opener vs. UMaine-Presque Isle was canceled.

It also goes into the return of fall athletics at the school after the pandemic reduced the men’s and women’s soccer, the field hockey and women’s volleyball teams to a 2020 autumn of just practices and drills, no competition.

Rivier University freshmen defender Matthew Francisco fires a shot during a recent Raider practice drill. Riv opens up its season after a major roster overhaul this weekend. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

Barbosa took the initiative, after a couple of struggling seasons prior, to bring in a whopping 24 recruits, most of them freshmen, a few of them transfers.

And he touted it all spring and summer on social media. It’s almost like starting from scratch. Once the players found out they weren’t going to compete in 2020, some transferred out and did not return, “and some just dropped off the face of the planet.”

To the point where the Raiders lost 10 players in the first week.

“That was devastating to the program and the coaching staff,” Barbosa said. “That obviously initiated that search. And a number of things played into that.

“The last couple of years have not been what’s been typical at Riv.”

Rivier men's soccer coach Hayden Barbosa shouts out instructions to his team during a recent practice. The Raiders are rebooting their program with 24 new faces, 20 of them freshmen. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

New VP of Enrollment Paul Brower brought in, according to Barbosa, a team of admissions counselors, etc., and to make a long story short, the recruiting/admissions process became somewhat easier for athletics thanks to some new grants. Often the cost of education was like a brick wall that coaches slammed into face first.

“They knocked it out of the park, man,” Barbosa said. “They instituted new scholarships and just a whole new energy to recruiting. …The energy from the admissions office is vastly different. The approach, vastly different.”

Various incentives to commit early also helped.

“It allowed us to draw that interest and obviously get their (recruits’) commitment early,” Barbosa said. “That allowed us to be much more competitive. My recruiting changed. The energy, the urgency, the fact that I’m going to be leading a freshmen class was enticing.”

That and the new $4.5 million Linda Robinson Pavilion that enhanced Merrill Field (the field renamed after the school’s current longtime AD), plus a new biology building that was, in Barbosa’s words, “the icing on the cake.”

It's a fresh start after a year of not playing for Rivier University men's soccer coach Hayden Barbosa and his program. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

Recruiting battles that were lost to other Great Northeast Athletic Conference schools, as well as others, were suddenly turning in Riv’s favor.

Men’s soccer has been a struggle the last decade at Rivier. The school lured Bill Lawler, who guided then-city rival Daniel Webster College to the NECC title and NCAA tourney, over to try to do the same, but Lawler found the GNAC far more daunting, and his best year was one when he was loaded with seniors, but the others were struggles. He left to coach elsewhere five years ago and Barbosa was tabbed as his successor.

And discovered a lot of the same problems.

“Really to compete with everybody else is having the resources and the finances to put your best foot forward,” Barbosa said. “Everyone wants to get a good deal.”

So Rivier began increasing the opportunities for that.

The Rivier University men's soccer team hopes there's strength in numbers as they have beefed up the program with 24 new recruits heading into Sunday's season opener. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

“That concept of (the recruits) leaving here knowing they’ve been accepted, having a good experience with the coach, and knowing it’s affordable to them, gives them a really good perspective of what we have to offer,” Barbosa said. “We’ve done a phenomenal job with that this past recruiting year.

“With all the investments made, we were now competitive with everybody else in our conference. And even beyond, I would go so far to say.”

The last three years for Barbosa were difficult.

“Along with all the changes, I had to also reassess my approach to recruiting ,” Barbosa said. “How do I recruit here? Recruiting at Rivier is different than recruiting at DW where I once was and Lasell University (his two previous stops).”

How so? Barbosa said he has to leverage the facilities in the recruiting process. Merrill Field was fine before the renovation, but as Barbosa said, “It didn’t wow anybody.”

“The way I go at these players had to change,” he said. “I dug deep, connected with coaches within our department and kind of picked their brain, how can we be successful at Rivier, and those were the keys to my success (in recruiting) this year.”

Barbosa discovered that GNAC teams are “super aggressive regionally” in their recruiting, and when he’d be at a game, he’d see every single GNAC coach.

“And when I’m talking to recruits, they’ve had probably 75 percent experience with GNAC schools,” he said. “The GNAC, I’d have to say, with honesty, it’s one of the most competitive conferences in the region by far.”

And the return to competition gives the program – and all the other fall athletic teams – even more energy.

“It’s exciting,” Barbosa said. “You can only do drills for so long with collegiate athletes. They’re so hungry to play. It’s just not the same, I’ll say that with certainty.

“We’re excited to get started, man. This is a young group, and there’s a ton of local talent.”

There sure is, in terms of quantity. Local freshmen include Jonathan Rudy (Alvirne), Jose Ochoa (Nashua South), Ryan Hadouche (Nashua South), Luca Frioni (Nashua South), Eric Gonzalez (Merrimack), Zach Chaisson (Merrimack) and Mike DeCarli (Campbell). They join senior captain Mike Federico of Milford to form a strong local contingent.

Federico (midfielder/defender) is one of just a handful of returnees, along with senior midfielder Pedro Lopez, sophomore keeper Dom Cuhna, senior midfielder Brandon Silva, junior forward Jimmy Digiovanni, and junior midfielder Tyler Demaral.

Now remember, with a program makeover comes incredible youth, and Barbosa is going to have to live with the growing pains of 20 freshmen.

“Tactically and pragmatically, we’re going to focus on defending,” Barbosa said. “Defending allows us an ability to be organized and disciplined. You give young players too much liberty, they start to lose the integrity of their defensive shape, and start committing lots of mistakes.

“So my defensive tactics aren’t going to change because they work. This year, moving forward with this group, the skill sets are tremendously higher than what I’ve had in the past.”

Can Barbosa close his eyes and look to the future, two or three years from now, when the freshmen are juniors and seniors?

“Absolutely,” he said. “At the end of the day, your goal is to see them all graduate. You want to see all these guys in your program that you bring in and have experience with to graduate.”

But there is, as he said, always attrition.

“In a perfect world, if I have 75 percent of these guys that I brought in this year (over the next four years), you’ll see us hitting the playoffs in two or three years,” Barbosa said.

But it’s obvious men’s soccer has joined a feeling on campus of rejuvenation after a lost year.

“Absolutely,” Barbosa said. “There’s a ton of energy across the board. Some of the men’s hockey players have touched down in town, they’re living off campus, so they’re popping in and out of the gym and on the turf. That’s kind of cool to see.

“Everyone’s roster is good. Everyone has a comfortable number which is always a great thing. The sheer number of student athletes coming in this year is incredible (among 350 incoming students).”

Barbosa also made use of social media; just about every week in the off-season, there were posts concerning the program, be it a new recruit, activity, etc.

Did it help?

“I think so,” Barbosa said. “Modernizing your approach to recruiting is important. Outreach, general awareness and visibility, I think, is important. Parents love that, and student athletes like the appeal of having that type of stuff. I think you’ll see a whole lot of that across the board here at Rivier.”

And, what you’ll see, Barbosa hopes, is a new, rejuvenated men’s soccer program that will reach a new level once a couple of years of growing pains are over.